Verizon Wireless to Refund $90 Million to Customers

Now this is a large settlement and a great gesture, but they shouldn’t have billed these customers in the 1st place. It’s kind of like a company leaving off a few hours on your paycheck. You have to fight to get it and sometimes it can take weeks to months, but when the company overpays you, it’s taken back promptly. Either way, it is good to see that the FCC has Verizon doing the right thing here. Although this is good news for some, I have a feeling that not many of you that read this site was would have been affected by this. I have to assume that most of us carry smart phones “with” data plans already. Read on to see what Verizon had to say about all this.

Verizon Wireless Issuing Credits To Customers

Verizon Wireless values our customer relationships and we always want to do the right thing for our customers.

In October and November, we are notifying about 15 million customers, through their regular bill messages, that we are applying credits to their accounts due to mistaken past data charges. We will mail former customers refund checks. In most cases, these credits are in the $2 to $6 range; some will receive larger credits or refunds.

As we reviewed customer accounts, we discovered that over the past several years approximately 15 million customers who did not have data plans were billed for data sessions on their phones that they did not initiate. These customers would normally have been billed at the standard rate of $1.99 per megabyte for any data they chose to access from their phones. The majority of the data sessions involved minor data exchanges caused by software built into their phones; others included accessing certain web links, which should not have incurred charges. We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future.

Verizon Wireless issues credits to customers from time to time based on regular review and monitoring. When we identify errors, we remedy them as quickly as possible. Our goal is to maintain our customers’ trust and ensure they receive the best experience possible.